Can We Talk Briefly About 'The Catcher In The Rye'?

This is notable in part because I rarely read books anymore. (No
time--too much iPhone.)

It's also notable because this is the third time I've read it.

The first time I read "The Catcher In The Rye" was in high
school, when everyone reads it. I loved it then, because it was
one of the few books I read that was written in language that I
could relate to. (Unlike Shakespeare, which I only pretended to
understand).

Specifically, the main character in "The Catcher In The Rye,"
Holden Caulfield, spoke like a high school student like me--using
words like "phony" and "that killed me" and "all that crap." And
I could relate to all the stuff Holden talked about: Girls,
baseball mitts, high school, family.

But I somehow came away from the book thinking that the reason it
was called "The Catcher In The Rye" was that Holden Caulfield
played baseball, as a catcher, and that, during the period
described in the book, he was feeling a bit lost ("in the rye.")

Then, five years or so ago, I read the book again, when a copy of
it appeared in my house.

And that was when I learned, to my surprise, that Holden
Caulfield was not a baseball player, much less a catcher, and
therefore, that the book's title had nothing to do with that.
(Holden's little brother Allie, who had recently died, had a
catcher's mitt. But other than that, there was no baseball in the
book.)

Rather, the "catcher in the rye" reference referred to a fantasy
Holden shares with his little sister Phoebe about about the only
thing Holden might want to do as an adult--the only thing
meaningful enough that he wouldn't feel like a phony doing it.
And that would be standing in a huge rye field in which a bunch
of little kids were playing, a field that ended at the edge of a
cliff. The little kids would be dashing all around the field, and
they wouldn't be looking where they were going--and occasionally
they would go charging toward the edge of the cliff. And Holden
would be there, catching them, before they went off the
cliff--the "catcher in the rye."

And that discovery was startling. Because all this time I'd
thought of Holden as a catcher behind the plate.

Well, anyway, that was five years ago.

Then the book appeared near my bed again sometime last year, so I
started reading it for the third time. Then it disappeared for a
year. Then, a week ago, it turned up again. So I finished reading
it.

And I figured out something else that I had missed the previous
two times I had read it. I figured out what the book is actually
about.

"The Catcher In The Rye" is the story of a kid who has a nervous
breakdown in the year after his little brother Allie dies.
Everyone is trying to help him, but almost no one can. No one
except his little sister Phoebe, who catches him before he goes
charging off the cliff.

(I realize this has no doubt long been obvious to all of you, but
it was news to me.)

Anyway, it's a great book.

It's also a short book, which is an underrated attribute,
especially these days.

If you can put your iPhone down long enough to read it, I highly
recommend it.